Safe locking mechanism



Patented Sept. 28, 1954 SAFE LOCKING MECHANISM Harvey W.'Ellis and Ernest J. Hamiter, Waskom, Tex.

' Application August 15, 1952, Serial No. 304,518

This invention relates to safe locking construction, and more particularly, has reference to a specially designed locking mechanism for a safe, which is adapted to remain normally ineffective for locking a safe, but which is further adapted to shift into an operative, safe locking position responsive to unauthorized tampering with the safe on which the mechanism is mounted. v

The desirability of providing an auxiliary looking mechanism for a safe, which will go into acton whenever an attempt is made to burglarize the safe or open the same in an unauthorized manner, is well appreciated. In this connection, it is desirable, in considering the construction of a mechanism of this type, that the mechanism be so designed as to'remain normally inoperative, thus to permit the safe to be opened and closed in the regular manner without interference from the mechanism. At the same time, it is equally desirable that the mechanism automatically be set in safe locking position whenever an unauthorized attempt is made to open the safe Without using the safe combination.

The broad object of the present invention is to provide a generally improved type of safe locking mechanism which will act in the manner summarized briefly above.

Another important object is to provide a mechanism of the character referred to whichfcan' be readily embodied in a safe construction with: out incurring a prohibitive expense, the construction which we have devised being such as to permit the locking mechanism constituting the present invention to be incorporated in relatively inexpensive or small safes such as are used in many business offices.

Another object of importance is to provide a mechanism as described which can be designed as an attachment to a safe already in use, so as to be mountable upon the safe without requiring expensive modification or redesigning of the safe.

Yet another object of importance is to provide .a mechanism as stated which will be adapted not only as an attachment for a safe already in use, but also will be adapted for incorporation in a safe during the manufacture of the safe itself.

Still another object is to provide a mechanism as stated which will be sure in operation, and will act responsively to any of various unauthorized attempts to burglarize a safe, such as the removal of the main safe door by explosive action, or removal of the conventional combination tumbler pin.

Summarized briefly, the invention comprises an auxiliary closure adapted to be mounted rear- 3 Claims. (Cl. 109-59) wardly of and in spaced relation to the main door of a safe, said auxiliary closure being normally connected to the main door so as to be opened therewith when the safe is being opened or closed in the regular manner. The combination tumbler pin carried by the main door of the safe has an'axial extension extending into the auxiliary closure and carried by said extension is a cam means which in the present in stance comprises a circumferentially grooved wheel. The auxiliary closure is provided with a plurality of loci; rods'or bolts, said lock rods or bolts being arranged radially of the tumbler pin extension, and being mounted for slidable movement in the direction of their lengths. The

lock rods or bolts, at their inner ends, are'in close proximity to a cam wheel, the outer ends of the lockrods' or bolts being normally retracted into the auxiliary closure, but'being extendable into locking recesses provided in the wall of the safe about the edge of the auxiliary closure. Thus, axial movement of the tumbler pin, which 1 axial movement will. occur whenever the main door of the safe is removed by explosive action or whenever an attempt is made to remove the.

tumbler pin, will be efiective to bias the lock rods or bolts outwardly into the recesses, thus to lockingly engage the auxiliary closure with description, the claims appended thereto, and a from the annexed drawings, in which like refer- 7 ends characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a horizontal section through the front portion of a safe equipped with a safe looking mechanism formed in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a section through the auxiliary closure and locking mechanism, taken substan" tially on line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged horizontal section through a portion of said mechanism.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the reference numeral Ill designates generally a conventional safe, such as is used in many business The safe in isproestablishments and plants. vide'd with the usual main door l2, having the said detent 3 combination dial I4, said combination dial being attached to the tumbler pin I6.

All this is conventional construction and does not per se constitute part of the present invention.

In accordance with the present invention, we provide an auxiliary closure 18, said auxiliary closure being disposed rearwardly of the main door within the safe l, and being arranged; in closely spaced relation tothe main door, as best shown in Figure 1. Bolts or other fixed connections H! are employed to fixedly connect the auxiliary closure to the main door, in the-spaced relation mentioned. In this connection, it is desirable that the auxiliary closure be spaced distinctly, but to a very small extent, from the main door, for a purpose to be made apparent hereinafter.

Formed in the front wall of the auxiliary closure [8 is an opening 20, receiving a tumbler pin extension 22, said extension. 22 being; integral or otherwise made rigid with the? tumbler pin it, and being disposed asan axial extension of the rearend of thetu-mbler pin,

On. that end of the extension 22 that is disposed within the hollow auxiliary closure it, we provide a cam member .24, said cam member: being formed, in th-epresent instance, asz-a wheel concentric with: the associated. extension 22 and rigidly secured to said extension. As will be noted from Figure l or Figure.3, the cam wheel 24 has a circumferential groove- V-shaped in cross section, whereby to define on. saidcam wheel oppositely arranged, inclined cam surfaces, said cam surfaces being. preferably extended at an angle of forty-five degrees to the axis ofv the extension 22.

The invention includes a. plurality of lock rods or bolts designated generally at 26, 28,. 30 and 32,,

said lock. rods or bolts beingdisposed radially of the extension 22. and. the wheel 24. Except for their lengths,.the lock rods or bolts are identically formed and have identical; operating. characteristics, and accordingly, only one of. saidrods or bolts will be described, it. being understood. that the remaining. lock rodswill be formed. like that. described, and wilL differ from thedescribed rod only in respect to the. length thereof, as. readily. noted, from Figure 2..

The lock rod 26, accordingly,.will be described, and as willv be noted, said. lock rod is provided with. an elongated shank 34having. at. its inner end. a reduced, axial extension. 3.6,,the extension 36. extending into close proximity to the cam member 24 (see Figure 3). Thatend, of. the extension 36 that is nearer. to the cam member. 24 is pointed, and bifurcated, and rotatably mounted in the pointed, bifurcated end of the extension 36 is a roller 38, said roller rotating on an axis normal to theaxis of the tumbler pin and cam member 24.

The provision of the reduced extension 36 defines a shoulder 40 on the lock rod, intermediate the opposite ends of the lock rod, said shoulder extending through the full circumference of the rod.

A- guide sleeve 42 is integral or otherwise made rigid with the inner surface; of the edge wall of. the auxiliary closure l8, and receives slidably the outer endof. theshank 34. The guide sleeve 42 is in communication with an. opening formed in said, edge wall, and, said opening. is, in turn, in communicationwith a locking recess formed in the wall of the safe.

A guide plate 46isfixedly mounted within the auxiliary closure, and can, for example, be made rigid at its opposite edges with the front and rear Walls of the auxiliary closure. Formed in the guide plate 4B is an opening 48 receiving the axial extension 36, said opening 48 being smaller in diameter than the outer diameter of the shoulder 40 of the lock rod.

By reason of this construction, it will be seen that movement of the lock rod in the direction of the cam member 24 will be limited by the plate 45. When the shoulder 40 is in engagement With the plate 46, the lock rod will be retracted fully within the closure l8, and Will be disposed out of engagement with the recess 44, this position of the parts being illustrated in the several figures of the drawing.

We provide upon the shank 34, intermediate the opposite ends of said shank, a cam projection 50; said cam projection having an inclined wall 52 of substantial length, that end of the inclined wall. 52. that is remote, from. the shank 34 merging into an abutment 53.. The other end of the inclined Wall 52 merges into a low inclined wall 54, the inclined wall 54 being disposed, in. opposed relation to the wall 5.2 sov as, in effect, toform. a. cam: notch in the projection 50.

The cam. notch of. the projection 50 is adapted to receive thev beveled end, 56. of a detent, pin 58, said pin 58 being slidably mounted in a recessedboss 6H integral or. otherwise made rigid with: the rear wall of the auxiliary closure and having a socket or recess 62' receiving the end of pin. 5.8 remote from shank 34. Within the recess 62 there is provided a coiled compression spring 64, one end of the spring, seating against the bottom Wall of the recess or socket, and the other end of the spring engaging the adjacent end of. the. pin 5.8, thus to normally urge the pin 58 in the direction of its associated shank 34.

During normal use of the safe, the parts will appear as shown. in the several figures of the drawing, that is, the several lock rods or bolts will be retracted within the auxiliary closure. Accordingly, the safe can be, opened or closed in the normal manner, by use of the prescribed combination. It may be noted, in this regard, that the lock rods or bolts do not interfere in any manner with the opening or closing of the safe on these occasions, since rotation of the tumbler pin 1.6 does not affect and is not affected by the lock rods or bolts,. the rollers 3.3 of the lock rods or bolts being spaced away from the cam member 24 as shownin Figure 3.

If, however, an attempt is made to burglarize the safe, and if for example the main door 12 is blown off by explosive action, there will of course result an axial movement of the tumbler pin Hi. Depending upon the nature of the explosion, the axial movement of the tumbler pin may be either inwardly or outwardly of the safe. Regardless of, the direction in which the tumbler pin is shifted axially, the cam member 24 will engage the rollers 38 of the several lock rods, and will cause the lock rods to be biased outwardly of the edges of the auxiliary closure, responsive to axial movement or the tumbler pin. As a result, the outer ends ofthe lock rods will shift instantaneously into the several locking recesses 44 arranged about the edge of the auxiliary closure, and will cause the auxiliary closure to be lockingly engaged with the Wall of the safe throughout its periphery.

When the lock rods move into the recesses 44,. they will. initially bias the detent pins 58 into the recesses 62, by reason ofthe cam engagement of the outer ends of the pins with the inclined surfaces 52. However. when the rods move fully into the recesses 44, the pins will slip off the inclined surfaces 52, and will be urged by the springs 64 into engagement with the surface of the shank 34, adjacent the abutment 53 of each lock rod. As a result, return movement of the several lock rods is precluded, and the safe will be effectively locked.

The purpose of the low inclined surfaces 54, in this regard, is to insure that the detent pins 58 will be retained in proper engagement with the lock rods, said surfaces 54 serving the function of properly locating the beveled ends of the detent pins upon the inclined surfaces 52.

The space between the auxiliary closure and the main door is of importance, in this regard, since said space is particularly adapted to cause the pressure of an explosion to act in a manner that will hold the inner closure I8 in place, thereby to cause axial movement of the tumbler pin within the inner closure. It will be understood,

in this regard, that the fixed connections IQ of the auxiliary closure or inner closure to the main door are of such a nature as to cause said fixed connections to shear if the main door is removed by explosive action.

The invention will, of course, work equally efiiciently if the main door is not removed by explosive action, under circumstances in which, for example, the attempt to burglarize the safe is carried out by tampering with the combination tumbler pin I6 in an attempt to remove the same. Such an attempt would cause axial movement of the tumbler pin in the same manner as occurs when the main door is iblOWli. off.

It is considered to be an important characteristic of the invention that the locking mechanism goes into action under various circumstances, so as to cause the safe to be automatically locked regardless of the nature of the attempt to burglarize the safe. Further, it is thought to be 'an important characteristic of the invention that the construction is relatively inexpensive, so as to be capable of incorporation in small or inexpensive safes. Still further, the construction which we have devised has the desirable characteristics of permitting its manufacture either as an attachment to a safe already in use, or as a component part of a safe during the initial manufacture of the safe.

It is believed apparent that the invention is not necessarily confined to the specific use or uses thereof described above, since it may be utilized for any purpose to which it may be suited. Nor is the invention to be necessarily limited to the specific construction illustrated and described, since such construction is only intended to be illustrative of the principles of operation and the means presently devised to carry out said principles, it being considered that the invention comprehends any minor change in construction that may be permitted within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a safe a door and a tumbler pin carried thereby, a closure carried by the door and disposed within the safe adjacent and on the inner side of the door, said tumbler pin extending into the closure; and means carried by the closure and operatively engaging the tumbler pin for movement thereby in-to locking engagement with the wall of said safe responsive to axial movement of the tumbler pin.

2. In a safe a door, a tumbler pin carried by said door, a closure carried by the door and disposed within the safe adjacent and on the inner side of the door, said safe having a wall formed with a plurality of recesses arranged about the edge of the closure, said tumbler pin having an axial extension projecting into and disposed transversely of the closure; cam means carried by said tumbler pin extension; a plurality of lock rods mounted in the closure and extending perpendicular to the tumbler pin for movement into said recesses, said lock rods engaging said cam means and being adapted to move into the recesses responsive to axial movement of the tumbler pin for lockingly engaging the closure with the wail of said safe; and detent means carried by the closure for engaging the lock rods on movement thereof into the recesses to retain the lock rods within the recesses.

3. In a safe a door, a closure carried by the door in closely spaced relation to the inner side of said door, a tum-bler pin carried by the door and extending into the closure, a cam carried by the tumbler pin within the closure, said cam having a, V-shaped groove extending therearound and defining oppositely inclined cam faces adjacent opposite ends of said cam, bolts mounted in the closure for movement along paths which lie radial to the axis of the tumbler pin and in alignment with the groove in the cam, rollers carried by the bolts for engaging a cam face and moving the bolts in their respective paths away from the axis of the tumbler pin upon axial movement of said pin, lugs carried by the bolts and extending outwardly therefrom intermediate the ends thereof and spring pressed detents carried by the 010-- sure and bearing on the lugs for movement toward the bolts when they move under the influence of the cam face to hold the bolts projected, and the safe having recesses in axial alignment with the bolts for receiving the bolts and locking the closure in the safe.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,164,488 Fink Dec. 14, 1915 1,490,528 Anakin Apr. 15, 1924 1,954,668 Ernst Apr. 10, 1934 2,209,067 Belknap July 23, 1940 2,365,343 Holleyhead Dec. 19, 1944 2,446,732 Whittall Aug. 10, 1948 2,472,651 Diaper June 7, 1949 

